Your mind is a garden. Your thoughts are the seeds. You can grow flowers or you can grow weeds.
Hi! I’m Jamie. I’m Mom to 2 amazing kiddos, doing the best I can to give them the best childhood possible. I wish I could post perfect pictures of my perfect house with my perfectly dressed, perfectly happy kids baking made from scratch pies together with the organic peaches we grew in our perfect backyard.
But, this is real life!
It is messy and it is hard. There are days any of us could really use an attitude adjustment. There are days my level of patience is concerningly low. Our snacks often come out of ahem… packages. Peanut butter and jelly is an acceptable main course. I often wear my clothes to bed. (Bonus: A fresh coat of deodorant, a pony, and a toothbrush, and I wake up ready to run errands!) Makeup is reserved for special occasions even though it takes 3 minutes to apply. We’re currently living with my mom…. Thanks Mom! You’re the best. I work from home and we are homeschoolers so the house is never clean unless we have special company coming, in which case we drop everything and clean like mad and act natural when the company arrives!
But I digress to focus in on why I’m here…. We’re homeschoolers.
I’ve been obsessively absorbing homeschooling information via a multitude of Facebook groups and Google searches for 3 years now trying to decide which type of homeschooler I am. I’ve been genuinely concerned with the quality of crayons I purchase for my kids. If I was a really good mom, I’d shell out $20 and buy beeswax crayons. I’ve questioned my decision to allow my children screen time and many times, felt bad for doing so, after reading posts suggesting that any amount of screen time is bad for my kids. I’ve seen countless photos of impeccable homes with picture-perfect farm tables and cute little galvanized pails perfectly labeled and organized… (you know with all the shades of blue in one pail, etc.) in beautiful custom kitchens. These were things I wanted one day in my perfect homeschool. Am I a Charlotte Mason homeschooler? A unit study homeschooler? An unschooler? A gameschooler? Wait…. What’s the difference between Montessori and Charlotte Mason? What are living books? What are morning baskets? Worksheets are bad for children, even if they enjoy them? Well, my mom went to Goodwill and bought us 3 of those last week. Out with the trash! Note to self…. Remove anything resembling a worksheet! Cute schoolroom but you really shouldn’t make it look like a “school” room. The list goes on and on of what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong.
If you are just starting out on your homeschooling journey or making a chage and feeling this pressure, first, take a deep breath. You’re doing great. There is a lot to take in. Most of these approaches and recommendations are interesting, valuable, and well-meaning. I will continue to read about them BUT instead of letting them make me feel like I’ve been doing it wrong this whole time, I will take from each, little bits of what I want to apply moving forward and still be proud of what I’ve been doing so far. My kids are 6 and 3 and I finally am to the point where I feel like I can “officially” consider myself a homeschooler. I want to invite you to join us on our journey. I want to share our struggles and our successes in a diverse community of fellow homeschoolers who support one another. Welcome!